PLAYING IN A LOST SPACE
in Heterotopia Zine 009 on Power
Scenario: Playing as Police, Tactic: video timelapse reverse play to let protesters push police.
If video games can tell us something about social movements, it will be that protest and riots are ‘irrational’ acts. A quick scan of titles such as SimCity (1989-2014), Tropico (2002- 2019), sleeping dogs: definitive edition (2014) or Assassin’s Creed Unity (2014) produce a narrative that reinforce ideologies and a discourse of irrational and unorganized protesters versus organized and spatially aware police. In Playing in a Lost Space, I reflect on my personal experience playing the “arab spring” in Riot: Civil Unrest. A 2019 videogame that was developed in response to global protest movement.
HAMZA BASHANDY, PhD
Ludic Portfolio of Research and Design
hamza.bashandy[at]carleton.ca
I am an architect and game scholar. I teach in the Interactive and Multimedia Design undergarduate program and in the master and PhD program, specialized in digital media at the School of Information Technology, Faculty of Engineering and Design at Carleton University. My research sits at the intersection of urban issues and playful simulations, particularly examining the implications of playful interventions and computer simulations in participatory design and social movements...
RESEARCH & PUBLICATIONS
01. A Design Toolkit of Ludic Contentious Politics
FDG 2025, Graz, Austria
UNIVERSITE DE LIEGE
02. Mapping Spaces of Resistance in Videogames
FNRS Dissertation,
Liège, Belgium
03. Playing in a Lost Space
Heterotopia Zine 009 on Power
04. Urban Rant Notebook
Indpendant ResearchARCHITECTURAL & GAME DESIGN
01. City.Craft
Workshop and Analysis of Minecraft in Spatial Design
CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY
02. Return to Sender
Research Creation Project,
TAG Centre
03. Playful Memory
Research Design
Labo LNA, ULiège.
04. Oshtoora Festival
Design Build
MADA Architects, Cairo.
DIS-PLAY LAB
FOR LUDIC DESIGN AND SPATIAL PLAY @CarletonU
Active Call MSc & PhD on Co-Design & Urban Sim Play
Start Date: January/September 2026
Research Assistants & MS.c. Opportunities
M.Sc. -> September 2025 / January 2026
RA-ships -> Flexibile
ACTIVE PROJECTS
The Crowd Problem in Videogames
SSHRC-funded project, Ottawa, Canada